Xbox One: 10 Big Changes That Would Actually Make It Worth Buying

Remember those stage demos where the voice-commands actually worked? Yeah, we'd like that please. Oh and while you're on, how about some games too?

So even months after the initial release dates, although sales figures are relatively high the general opinion of the next-generation (or should it be current?) Xbox is that they it just isn't worth the investment. With Arkham Knight and Assassin's Creed Unity the only big upcoming next generation-only titles confirmed, what else needs to change? Many gamers live in a house where the €˜big TV' is shared amongst people of differing technological savviness. Plugged into this TV is a speaker system, DVD player, maybe a 1990's VHS player, game console and a cable box. You may need three different remotes to do everything properly, and being the most tech savvy person in that space; the constant fiddling with inputs, audio, screen width, outputs and so on can become a little overwhelming. Microsoft in a rare show of vision promised to fix that with the Xbox One, and hinted at it with the release of the first Kinect way back in 2010. The ability to say €œXbox Pause€, €œXbox Play€, €œXbox Mute€, and some other voice commands came the promise of a convenient, voice-activated world. When it comes to the Xbox One, it's not wild to speculate the early adopters bought the console for that multimedia platform promise, sold on the idea of a Kinect camera and the next generation of technological interaction that would be easy not just for the gamer, but their family and friends too. So it's a huge downer that the Xbox One reeks of the 80% problem - it's awesome...most of the time, something akin to getting dressed up for a big event and forgetting to tie its shoes. Things like the cable freezing when switching a channel to it sometimes randomly turning off or picking up on a glass or mug as a hand gesture, using this device from the perspective of a layman is frustrating and intimidating, not to mention embarrassing to gamers eager to show off their new console. Toss in the fact that the person who did buy this console to play the hottest games is feeling a little left out in the cold right now, and it seems the Xbox One has quite a lot of changes to make if it wants to compete with the cheaper and more robust PS4 - and that€™s a huge problem. Thankfully it€™s not one that can€™t be fixed. The promise the Xbox One offers is strong, which makes its shortcomings all the more frustrating. But with a these 10 changes, it could at least begin to crawl out of the 360's massive shadow.
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Paul is a writer, video producer, gamer, lover, and tie-fighter. E-mail him at MeekinOnMovies@gmail.com.